Zombie pigmen are common undead humanoid neutral mobs that live in the Nether.
Spawning
Zombie pigmen can spawn in the Nether, from nether portals, or from pigs struck by lightning. They have a 5% chance of spawning as a baby zombie pigman, and a baby zombie pigman has a 5% chance of spawning as a pigman jockey[Java and Legacy Console editions only].
All zombie pigmen spawn with a golden sword, which may randomly be enchanted. This chance increases at higher difficulties, and the sword's enchantment will more commonly be of a higher level.
Nether
Zombie pigmen spawn in groups of 4 in the Nether at any light level.
Nether portals
When a nether portal block in the Overworld receives a block tick, there is a small chance (1/2000 on Easy, 2/2000 on Normal, and 3/2000 on Hard) it will spawn a zombie pigman on the portal frame beneath it. If a zombie pigman spawned in this way does not leave the portal it spawns on, there is a possibility it will teleport to the nether.
Pigs
A zombie pigman will spawn when lightning strikes within 4 blocks of a pig. If the player is riding the pig when lightning hits it, a zombie pigman will appear on top of the player. Even if the pig is a baby, the zombie pigman will still be an adult.
Drops
Zombie pigmen drop:
Common drops
- 0–1 rotten flesh
- 0–1 gold nuggets.
- The maximum amount of each can be increased by 1 per level of Looting used, up to a maximum of 4 each at Looting III.
Rare drops
- 2.5% chance to drop a gold ingot if killed by a player
- 8.5% chance to drop their golden sword when their death is registered as a player kill.
- The chances of each can be increased by 1% per level of Looting.
Experience
Zombie pigmen drop 5 experience (12 if baby), when their death is registered as a player kill. Since 1.8, deaths of hostile pigmen will always be registered as kills by the player they are targeting, regardless of whether that player ever touched that pigman.[1]
All items zombie pigmen have picked up after spawning will be dropped upon death.
Halloween
On Halloween (October 31), zombie pigmen have a 22.5% chance of spawning with a pumpkin or a 2.5% chance of spawning with a jack o'lantern equipped as headgear.
If a zombie pigman wearing a pumpkin or jack o'lantern is killed using a tool enchanted with Looting, there will be a chance equivalent to the level of Looting used to drop the pumpkin or jack o'lantern, up to a maximum of a 3% chance at Looting III.
Behavior
Zombie pigmen tend to move relatively slowly. They cannot drown and are immune to fire and lava damage. Baby zombie pigmen are faster than adult zombie pigmen. When provoked, their speed will increase to the player's walking speed. They will also make an aggressive noise between 0 to 39 ticks after they are attacked, crowding around and will try to overwhelm the player. In addition, some zombie pigmen will have the ability to spawn reinforcements when attacked, including when killed in a single hit.
Like zombies, zombie pigmen will usually bang on wooden doors, and on Hard difficulty, they even break them.[2]
Some zombie pigmen have the ability to pick up items. They will even pick up a weapon if they feel it is better than their golden sword, dropping their golden sword with the same chance as if killed with Looting I.
Zombie pigmen actively seek out and try to destroy turtle eggs.
Zombie pigmen are undead mobs, and are damaged by the status effect Instant Health and healed by the status effect Instant Damage. They are unaffected by the status effects Regeneration and Poison.They are ignored by the wither and affected by the Smite Enchantment.
Hostility
Zombie pigmen are not initially hostile, but all zombie pigmen within a 67×67×21 to 111×111×21 area centered on the attacked pigman will become aggressive and converge on the player if any individual is attacked, unless the pigman attacked is killed in one hit. This applies to any hit registered as coming from the player or other mobs, including deflecting ghast fireballs, from sweep attacks or a skeleton shooting one.
Zombie pigmen will remain hostile for 20 to 39.95 seconds, although they will continue to pursue an already-targeted player after this time until the player escapes their 40 block pursuit radius. Approaching within 35 blocks of an already hostile zombie pigman causes it to sound an alarm call, angering other zombie pigmen in a 40-block radius. The forgiveness timer does not advance for zombie pigmen in unloaded chunks. Thus, if the player enters a Nether portal and returns, any provoked zombie pigmen in the area will still be aggressive unless another player was nearby to keep the chunks loaded. Dying will not cause zombie pigmen to become neutral towards the player, regardless of whether they killed you. Furthermore, they will still pursue even if the player is under the effects of Invisibility.
Non-hostile zombie pigmen will not prevent a player from sleeping in a bed.[Java and Legacy Console editions only]
In Bedrock Edition when a baby zombie pigman is provoked, it has 15% chance to become a jockey when trying to attack the player or golem. Mobs which are mountable by baby zombie pigmen are:
- Cow
- Ocelot
- Wolf
- Mooshroom
- Adult chicken (can only spawn naturally in the Overworld)
- Pig
- Sheep
- Polar bear
- Horse
- Donkey
- Mule
- Zombie horse (unused jockey variant)
- Skeleton horse
- Llama
- Adult zombie
- Adult zombie villager
- Adult zombie pigman
- Adult Husk
- Spider
- Cave spider
Due to baby zombie pigmen only wanting to become a jockey if provoked by a player or golem, and most mountable mobs spawn in the Overworld, these baby zombie pigmen jockey variants are the rarest type of jockey. Although baby zombie pigmen want to be a jockey when provoked, it stills keeps riding the mountable mob even after becoming neutral again.
Mobs being ridden by baby zombie pigmen can no longer be ridden by the player.
Data values
Zombie pigmen have entity data associated with them that contain various properties of the mob. Their entity ID is zombie_pigman.
- Entity data
- Additional fields for mobs that can become angry
- Tags common to all entities
- Tags common to all mobs
- Tags common to all zombies
Advancements
| Icon | Advancement | In-game description | Parent | Actual requirements (if different) | Resource location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Adventure | Adventure, exploration and combat | — | Kill any entity, or be killed by any entity. | adventure/root
|
![]() | Monster Hunter | Kill any hostile monster | Adventure | Kill one of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_a_mob
|
![]() | Monsters Hunted | Kill one of every hostile monster | Monster Hunter | Kill each of these 34 mobs:
| adventure/kill_all_mobs
|
Video
Zombified Piglin/video
History
| alpha | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| v1.2.0 | October 25, 2010 | Notch tweets that he is working on a second mob for the Nether, stating that they are less dangerous than ghasts and are "kind of pointless." | |||
| preview | File:Zombie Pigman Revision 1.png Zombie pigmen were originally presented as unarmed neutral creatures in a preview before the Halloween Update. | ||||
| Halloween Update | Added zombie pigmen in the Halloween Update. | ||||
| Zombie pigmen will remain hostile for eternity if the player hit one. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen drop 0-2 cooked porkchops. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen are referred to as "Pig Zombie" in the language file. | |||||
| beta | |||||
| 1.5 | Pigs struck by lightning in the Overworld will now change into zombie pigmen.[5] | ||||
| 1.8 | ? | Zombie pigmen will now no longer drop cooked porkchops and will now drop rotten flesh instead. | |||
| Java Edition | |||||
| 1.0.0 | Beta 1.9 Prerelease | Zombie pigmen will now drop gold nuggets, in addition to rotten flesh. | |||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 2 | Zombie pigmen will now have 2 armor points, like zombies. The armor points will prevent 8% of damage taken. | ||||
| Beta 1.9 Prerelease 5 | Zombie pigmen, along with other undead mobs, can now be damaged by splash potions of healing, and will be healed by splash potions of harming. | ||||
| A sword enchanted with Smite will now do extra damage to zombie pigmen. | |||||
| 1.2.1 | 12w06a | Zombie pigmen will now have a rare chance of dropping gold ingots, golden helmets, or their own golden swords, which may be enchanted. The sword will be enchanted with the equivalent of roughly a level 5 enchantment. | |||
| ? | Zombie pigmen are now referred to as their real name, "Zombie Pigman," in the language file, rather than "Pig Zombie". | ||||
| 1.3.1 | 12w22a | Zombie pigmen can now spawn in the Overworld from Nether portals. | |||
| 1.4.2 | 12w32a | Zombie pigmen can now rarely carry enchanted swords and wear any type of armor. | |||
| The sword that a zombie pigmen is carrying will now increase the damage it can deal. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen will now sometimes pick up dropped items. | |||||
| 12w34b | Zombie pigmen wil now try to get back into the Nether portal they came from when in the Overworld. | ||||
| 12w36a | The zombie and zombie pigman models and textures will now have an addition 32 pixels of empty space below the texture. | ||||
| ? | On Halloween, zombie pigmen will now have a chance of spawning with a pumpkin or jack o'lantern on its head. | ||||
| 1.6.2 | ? | Baby zombie pigmen will now spawn naturally. | |||
| 1.7.2 | 13w36a | When struck by lightning, zombie pigmen will now spawn with golden swords. | |||
| 1.7.4 | 13w49a | Added chicken jockeys. Since zombie pigmen share some of the zombie .class files, there are also now zombie pigman jockeys - a rare version of the baby zombie pigman. | |||
| ? | |||||
| 1.8 | 14w03a | The only way to obtain gold nuggets and gold ingots from zombie pigmen, is now for the player to kill them, whether it's through combat, potions, or player-activated mechanisms such as manually lit TNT. | |||
| If killed without player intervention, zombie pigmen will now only drop rotten flesh. This has now made fully-automatic gold farms impossible. | |||||
| 14w04a | The above change has now been reverted; zombie pigmen will now drop gold nuggets and ingots no matter how they are killed. | ||||
| 14w06a | Zombie pigmen will now use the new mob AI, allowing them to navigate obstacles. | ||||
| An aggravated zombie pigman will now become passive after 20 to 39.95 seconds, although they will continue to attack until the player gets outside their aggressive distance. | |||||
| 14w07a | Baby zombie pigmen are now always hostile to players who have ever attacked them. | ||||
| 14w11a | Zombie pigmen will now run away from creepers that are about to explode. | ||||
| pre1 | Baby zombie pigmen, like adults, will now become passive after 20 to 39.95 seconds. | ||||
| 1.8.1 | pre1 | Zombie pigmen will now no longer run away from creepers that are about to explode. | |||
| 1.9 | 15w34a | Zombie pigmen will now have an attack animation without weapons. | |||
| 1.11 | 16w32a | The entity ID is changed from PigZombie to zombie_pigman.
| |||
The zombie pigmen's in-game name is now "Zombie Pigman" instead of "Zombie" in their name tag when they have CustomNameVisible enabled. | |||||
| 1.12 | 17w06a | Non-hostile zombie pigmen will now no longer prevent a player from sleeping in a bed. | |||
| 1.13 | 18w07a | Zombie pigmen will now seek out turtle eggs and intentionally trample them. | |||
| 18w19a | Zombie pigmen will now sink in water. | ||||
| Zombie pigmen will now no longer drown in water. | |||||
| Pocket Edition Alpha | |||||
| 0.5.0 | File:Zombie pigman Faceless.png Added zombie pigmen, which only spawn in nether reactors. | ||||
| Zombie pigmen are hostile to all players, but have a shorter sight range. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen are missing their head layer. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen's drops are different than in Java: 0-1 feathers and/or a gold ingot. | |||||
| 0.7.2 | Added new sounds for the zombie pigmen. | ||||
| 0.8.1 | Zombie pigmen will now no longer take damage when they are burning in the daylight. | ||||
| 0.9.0 | ? | Zombie pigmen can now be spawned using a spawn egg. | |||
| 0.9.2 | Zombie pigmen will now rarely drop carrots and potatoes. | ||||
| Zombie pigmen will now have an attacking animation. | |||||
| 0.9.4 | Zombie pigmen will now have 2 ( | ||||
| 0.11.0 | build 1 | Zombie pigmen can now spawn with three at once instead of one in nether reactors. | |||
| Zombie pigmen will now have their arms out like regular zombies. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen will now no longer burn in sunlight. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen will now drop rotten flesh, which was previously a feather and rarely a gold ingot, instead of a carrot or potato. | |||||
| build 2 | Zombie pigmen can now spawn as babies. | ||||
| 0.12.1 | build 1 | Zombie pigmen will now spawn in the Nether. | |||
| Zombie pigmen will now use the new mob AI. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen are now neutral. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen can now wear armor. | |||||
| Pigs struck by lightning will now turn into zombie pigmen. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen can now drop gold nuggets. | |||||
| Zombie pigmen can now spawn from Nether portals in the Overworld. | |||||
| build 11 | Zombie pigmen will now have a chance of spawning with enchanted swords. | ||||
| build 12 | Zombie pigmen will now attack iron golems. | ||||
| 0.14.0 | build 1 | Baby zombie pigmen will now have 15% chance of becoming a jockey when angered. | |||
| Adult zombie pigmen can now be ridden by baby zombie variants. | |||||
| 0.15.0 | build 1 | Zombie pigmen will now have a faster speed when angered. | |||
| Pocket Edition | |||||
| 1.1 | build 1 | The entity ID is changed from pig_zombie to zombie_pigman. | |||
| Bedrock Edition | |||||
| 1.5 | beta 1.5.0.0 | Zombie pigmen will now sink underwater. | |||
| Zombie pigmen will now no longer drown in water. | |||||
| Legacy Console Edition | |||||
| TU1 | CU1 | 1.0 | Patch 1 | ||
| TU12 | Zombie pigmen will now have a rare chance of dropping gold ingots, golden helmets or their own golden swords which can be enchanted. The sword will be enchanted with a random level 5 enchantment. | ||||
| TU14 | 1.04 | Zombie pigmen can now spawn in the Overworld from Nether portals. | |||
| TU19 | CU7 | 1.12 | |||
| Zombie pigmen can now wear armor or weapons. | |||||
| TU31 | CU19 | 1.22 | Patch 3 | Zombie pigmen will now become neutral again towards the player in 20 to 39.95 seconds after provocation, although they will continue to attack until the player gets outside their aggro distance. | |
| New Nintendo 3DS Edition | |||||
| 0.1.0 | Added zombie pigmen. | ||||
Issues
Issues relating to "Zombified Piglin" are maintained on the bug tracker. Report issues there.
Trivia
- The zombie pigman skin file has "THX XAPHOBIA" written on the unused section as a credit by Notch to the skin's original creator, XaPhobia.
Gallery
A baby zombie pigman riding a chicken.
A zombie pigman riding a minecart.
Two zombie pigmen wearing wither skeleton skulls.
- Pigzombie.png
The zombie pigman skin with the text "THX XAPHOBIA"
- Ingame pig zombie pe.jpeg
A zombie pigman seen in-game from Bedrock Edition (before 0.11.0).
- Zombie pig by portal.jpg
A zombie pigman that recently spawned around a portal in the Overworld.
- Zombie pigman Faceless.png
Bedrock Edition Zombie Pigman before they added the head layer.











